It's time!
I'm going abroad again!!

Well, it's not time yet. I still have 73 days until my flight leaves Louisville, but the point is, I AM GOING AGAIN! Once again, I am just a little bit excited. I can't believe I have been blessed with the opportunity to go to Europe a 2nd time in my university career. I barely even dreamed I would legitimately get to go a first time.

My summer 2011 will be spent in Paris, France (and a few weeks in good old London town).
I'm seeing a trend here... Spring 2010, Summer 2011.... what's up for Fall 2012? (which happens to be the time period after I graduate. Hmmmmmm.....)

I started writing a blog about Italy, but then forgot that I had gone to London again between the Lake District and Italy! Maybe I didn't remember it because I still haven't put my pictures from it on Facebook. Oops- I knew I was forgetting something. Maybe I'll do that tonight.
Anyway, we went to London because of a field trip for British Studies- we went to go see the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and St. Paul's Cathedral, all of which were really cool. In the National Gallery, we saw all the originals of the paintings we've seen on PowerPoints in class: like Charles I, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (which was on our last exam), Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump (which I wanted to be on our last exam). It was really neat to be seeing the originals. In the National Portrait Gallery, we saw portraits of the Queens and Kings that we saw in class, mostly of Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, and Victoria I would say... they seem to have a lot of portraits. Also in the National Portrait Gallery is the only sketch of Jane Austen done while she was alive. Sooooo cool! In St. Paul's (aside from being absolutely beautiful) all kinds of famous war heroes that we have been learning about in class are buried in it, so that was fun. AND to make things better I had Dr. Bujak for the tour, and he is hilarious and really knows what he is talking about.
After the field trip, Amber, Melody, Megan, and I (and a bunch of other people) all stayed in London for the weekend. We grabbed our luggage off the bus and started the trek towards our hostel. Ooh, Hyde Park Hostel, how you sucked. It was seriously a dump- very shady. Our roof leaked, I was pretty sure a pigeon was about to fly through our window one night, it smelled bad, the toilet was missing parts, etc. It was so disgusting that I refused to take a shower (naturally by the time I got back to the manor I was nasty, so that was the first thing I did). We even discovered (thankfully on the day we were leaving) a can of bug killer in our room. So, if you're ever in London, DO NOT EVER stay in Hyde Park Hostel. It's not even in a good area of town- NOTHING is anywhere NEAR Hyde Park... except Hyde Park. If you want to go to the park, then you should probably stay near it- just not in Hyde Park Hostel. NEVER.
Aside from the crappy hostel (which we were conveniently NEVER in), London was as fantastic as ever (though also as rainy as ever). Friday night Melody, Amber, and I went to see the Lion King, and it was AMAZING. We waited outside the stage door and met the guy that played Simba, the girl that played Nala, they guys that played Timon and Zazu. Simba was super nice- he was asking us where we were from, what we were doing in London, where we were sitting during the show, how we liked it, etc. He was actually taking the time to talk to us, which we all really appreciated. So I would definitely recommend seeing the Lion King.
Saturday we mostly wandered around and went shopping. Melody went back to school on the bus that night (thus escaping the nasty hostel) and so Megan, Amber, and I walked around London (ok... so we took the tube around London. Hey- it was raining). We did lots of tacky souvenir shopping, and a lot of Primark shopping as well. London Primark is a must. Primark is the BEST STORE EVER. Seriously, I have restocked my entire spring wardrobe for about $30- it is dirt cheap and really cute stuff. Then we went down to Millenium Bridge (the bridge used in the filming of the 6th Harry Potter movie) and took pictures there, walked over to Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and then had dinner. On the way to the bridge we ran across some men selling roasted peanuts, so naturally we bought some of those (and they were delicious).While we were eating dinner we watched the England vs. France rugby match on tv with lots of Londoners, and I eavesdropped on a Spanish conversation happening behind me. It was magical.
Sunday Amber, Melody, Audrey, and I went to Hillsong United's church, and it was awesome. The worship was great (as expected) and the message was as well. The speaker was actually from America (Texas) so that was an interesting experience. It seriously was great though- I would go back anytime.
That's basically all we did. Amber and I definitely showered as soon as we got back.

As many of you probably already know from my incessant facebook status updates about It, on Thursday evening some friends and I ventured to London to go to the red carpet (dyed green for the occasion) premiere of the new Tim Burton movie, Alice in Wonderland. Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange), Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) and Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew) were all there. I didn't see them, but I know that Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall drove past me, because all of the stars drove past us- they had to. I saw Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter from a distance, and I got up close and personal with Mr. Johnny Depp.

Suddenly, screams started to our left, and grew louder and louder. We knew that the moment had come: Johnny Depp was here. A slow moving black car got closer and closer to us, and through the open window, Johnny waved at us. My camera only saw his hands on his lap, but I saw his face.


We then proceeded to wait some more, as the heavens proceeded to rain even harder. We watched more famous people arrive from far away, judging how important the person was on how loud the screams were. Then, another mountain of screams came- this time starting on our right. Johnny Depp was walking back down towards us! He walked past, and started signing autographs and was moving our way. He was getting closer and closer to us! I stuck my arm out over everyone else, notebook opened to a blank page, and then… YES! I felt a pressure on the notebook! I had a Johnny Depp autograph! I was snapping pictures like crazy, not knowing if I actually had a picture of him or not, but when I pulled my camera back and looked at them, I realized I had several.


After Johnny passed us, we realized that no one else was probably going to walk down (it was getting close to the time of the screening), so we headed out. It was an amazing night. I still can't believe that I was a foot away from Johnny Depp, and that Anne Hathaway, Snape, Bellatrix, and Pettigrew all drove past me in a car. It's crazy.



I love my life.

London this weekend was AMAZING. I had so much fun! I can't even begin to tell you about how great it was, but I'm going to try.
We left Harlaxton on Friday morning at 8 and drove into London. It was raining all the way there, so I was kind of sad about that, but by the time we actually got to the city it had stopped, so that was great. We then went on a 2 hour bus tour around London and got to get off the bus and take pictures in front of Tower Bridge. It's so weird to finally see landmarks like that in person; we see that bridge all the time on tv, in movies, in the news, etc- so it was so unreal for me to be standing right in front of it. We then went back to the hotel and checked in and everything, then we had all of Friday and Saturday totally free!
Eileen, Anna, and I decided to go for a walk around London. We started out with a bigger group of people, but that slowly disintegrated as people found their own stuff they wanted to go see, and also just because it's hard to navigate a huge group of people through a big city like London. After taking pictures in Trafalgar Square, we headed on down towards the river to Big Ben and Parliament, where we took more pictures and stopped in a little souvenir shop for some postcards and such (we acted like tourists for just a little while... most of the time we tried to blend in.) When we got down to Big Ben, we realized that we actually had no idea how far we had gone, and also that we had to get back to the hotel to meet people for dinner. We had kind of just been wandering through the streets, stopping in stores as we passed, etc, so we didn't know how long it was going to take us to get back to the hotel. 45 minutes later we FINALLY got back. It was so cold outside and it was dark and I really think we walked like 3 miles each way. Then came the fun dinner at the crazy Chinese place. The only reason we went was because it was close and the London Pub was so jam packed not even two people could get inside, let alone our group of 8. The Chinese place was so weird, and it was expensive, and our waitress hated us, even though we didn't do anything. She was just a meanie. But it's ok I guess, because now we have a good story about it. You probably don't think that was a good story, but trust me... they were crazy.

After dinner we all went out to a pub that was just a couple of blocks away from our hotel, called the Rocket. It was SO MUCH FUN. I loved getting to talk to people that were there, because it seeemed to be that its customers were mostly locals. Granted, they were mostly drunk locals, but they were still really fun to talk to. Anna, Shaylin, and I met these two guys named Jack and Dominic, and I had a lovely hour-long conversation with Dominic about Harry Potter. During this conversation, it was ruled that I was indeed the bigger fan. :) (Not even people in London can touch my mad Harry Potter skills... haha) But anyway, it was like my dream come true. I was in London, having a conversation about Harry Potter, with a British guy. Really- what more could I have asked for? It was great! Also, I had the boys do their own impersonations of American accents, which was hilarious! Jack's needed some work, but Dominic's was pretty good. They then made me do my British accent. They laughed at me. Apparently it's not as good as I thought it was...
Saturday morning I went with my roommate (Amber) a new friend (Megan), and a friend from Western (Audrey) on another walk around London, but since it was POURING DOWN RAIN we took the tube (hence the title of my blog- I don't know how many times I heard "Mind the gap!" ) We went back down to Big Ben, Parliament, Trafalgar Square, etc. We also stopped in at Leicester square to pick up tickets for a show (our main purpose in heading that direction). We wanted to see Wicked, but it was going to be 59 pounds per ticket (that's about $90 for you Americans) and we decided that it was too expensive, so we went for Hairspray instead. It was so great! I loved it so much. The music was great, and the actors were phoenomenal. It takes a certain amount of skill to both talk and sing in a perfect American accent, which most of them did. After the play I went back to the Rocket with Anna and Shaylin again, where I got to meet some other guys that I also had nice conversations with (not about Harry Potter this time, but hey, life can't be absolutely perfect every day...) One of the guys I was talking to had actually been to Kentucky before, so that was a fun conversation. As we were leaving to go back to the hotel that night we met a guy from California who was studying abroad at UCL (University College of London), whose friends had left him alone in London on his first night there! (Poor guy!) So we (with the help of some of our new London friends) helped him make his way back to his school.

Sunday we went to Hampton Court Palace (the home of King Henry VIII). It was very cool to think that Henry once walked on the same ground I was walking on, slept in the bed I was looking at, sat in the chair right in front of me, etc. However, it was cold, and we were all exhausted. So, I really didn't enjoy it quite as much as I might have had we done it a different day. It was still very cool though. I may go back sometime when I'm not quite so tired.


So, the basics of what I did in London are as follows:

1. Meet lots of cool people. This is me and my new British friend Jack.

2. Walk about a million miles. Me and Anna halfway through our epic journey down to Big Ben.

3. Learn that the stereotype of "rainy London" is pretty true. This is Anna, Shaylin, and Eileen putting their umbrellas and rainboots to good use.

4. Navigate the tube. I'm a pro, trust me. This is Mark, Me, Anna, and Shaylin on our way to Knightsbridge.

5. Take in a show. This is Megan, Amber, and me at Hairspray.

6. See all the monuments I've seen on TV since I was a kid. This is (obviously) me in front of Big Ben!

7. Visit a palace. This is me walking around in Hampton Court Palace.

In all seriousness, I could see myself living in a suburb of London, should I ever find myself needing to move to Europe. (Don't worry Mom, I'm still coming home in May. hahaha ) Everything here is beautiful, and accessible, and the people are all really friendly (with the exception of our waitress at the Chinese place...). London was great. Hands down, no arguments, no complaints. I loved everything about it, and I'm definitely going back LOTS this semester.